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Crimes by Moonlight
Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side (2010) — Anthology Editor and Authors Editor: Charlaine Harris Contributors: Charlaine Harris (UF, Myst), Steve Brewer (), Toni L.P. Kelner (UF, Myst), Lou Kemp (), Harley Jane Kozak (), William Kent Kreuger (), Margaret Maron (), Martin Meyers (), Terrie Farley Moran (), Jeffrey Somers (), Elaine Viets () ~ Mostly mystery writers, not UF. Genre and Sub-Genres Mystery / Crime / Urban Fantasy Theme Supernatural Crime Description A winning mystery collection edited by and featuring an original story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. Nighttime is the perfect time for the perfect crime-especially in the realm of the paranormal. #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an original story-set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe-to this anthology of mysteries from the dark side. Other featured Mystery Writers of America include Carolyn Hart, Barbara D'Amato, Margart Maron, Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane, and Elaine Viets. Supernatural Elements Vampire, ghost hunter, ghost, magician, goddess, banshee, magic ring, pirates, wizards, witch List of Stories To expand the table, right-press on a row of the table or (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add row. Synopsis by Story 1. "Dahlia Underground" by Charlaine Harris — Sookie Stackhouse series #9.3 A vampire tries to protect the firefighters who saved her life after her hotel was bombed, and to track down those responsible. — After the incident in Rhodes during one of the Sookie Stackhouse books, a vampire named Dahlia works to keep human firefighters safe after the Fellowship of the Sun targets them for helping rescue vampires and vampire sympathizers from that incident. 2. "Hixton" by William Kent Krueger A journalist tracks down a retired police officer in the hopes of shedding new light on a series of disappearances twenty years before. — Martin goes to visit a retired investigator who once worked a case in Martin's hometown involving 5 missing boys, in order to see what exactly the investigator had to say about that case. 3. "Small Change" by Margaret Maron The detective here is a teenage girl who can shapeshift into inanimate objects, which comes in handy when her father's antiques store becomes the target of a very ambitious burglar. 4. "The Trespassers" by Brendan DuBois A small town police chief is called in to investigate the death of a ghost hunter studying an old house where strange things have been happening to the new owners. — A small town policeman attends the scene of an accidental death in a reputedly haunted house that some out-of-town types are hoping to turn into a B&B. 5. "Madeeda" by Harley Jane Kozak A woman deals with her twins getting visits from a strange spirit named Madeeda and her husband working for a company that is doing very illegal things, only to have both plotlines twist together in an unexpected way. — A pregnant woman who feels isolated after her husband moves their family halfway across the country to take a high-powered corporate job becomes increasingly paranoid as her twin sons start claiming to see the ghost of a witch. 6. "House of Horrors" by S. W. Hubbard A man wonders if his foster daughter had anything to do with the disappearance of a high school boy from a haunted house tour. — A family on vacation to celebrate their adoption of a young girl get caught up in the disappearance of a teenage boy. A funhouse setting. 7. "Sift, Almost Invisible, Through" by Jeffrey Somers A guy investigates the case of a mysterious stranger who shows up in the photos of another man, even though the stranger couldn't physically be seen at the times the photo was taken. — An investigator who may or may not specialise in the paranormal is hired by a man whose photographs reveal an eerie presence following him around. 8. "The Bedroom Door" by Elaine Viets Francine has a grandmother who can see dead people in her bedroom doorway 3 days before they die, and her latest victim is Francine's own business partner. — A woman whose grandmother has a visions of people standing in her bedroom doorway 72 hours before they die gets obsessed with the idea that her soon-to-be-deceased business partner is having an affair with her husband, while largely ignoring the teenage daughter whom she repeatedly claims she's desperate to form a closer bond with. 9. "The Conqueror Worm" by Barbara D'Amato Neal gets increasingly threatening emails from a dead friend of his, however, they are not visible to anyone except for him, thus driving him slightly insane. ~ has pirates, wizardry, a Christie-esque setting and an anti-hero with plenty of charisma. 10. "In Memory of the Sybilline" by Lou Kemp A magician prisoner on a ship helps a family of three through various difficulties throughout the journey. — 11. "The Bloodflower" by Martin Meyers Hope, having just moved into a new apartment, appears to develop the powers of her landlord (which involve the goddess Hecate). This makes Hope, a formerly shy and plain girl, a popular and gorgeous young woman who ends up as the host of TV's newest hit show, Sexploits - though she does have a trail of bodies behind her on her way to the top. — The story of a group of thoroughly unpleasant TV execs, one of whom is also damningly "ugly", until suddenly granted power and beauty by a witchy individual who never shows up again to explain why she bothered. 12. "The Awareness" by Terrie Farley Moran The banshee for the O'Conor family is faced with her first homicide. Unhappy with the unnatural death, she ends up investigating and then solving the murder of one of her charges. — A banshee who has followed a family of Irish immigrants to America and through several generations, mourning their deaths and easing their passage into the next life when their times come, encounters her first murder and decides it's her duty to investigate when the police come up empty. ::Special Review: Terrie isn’t so much an author as an artist. She doesn’t write– she paints with words. She sketches and shades and sometimes sculpts. Characters emerge in bas-relief. Single sentences become miniature portraits and landscapes.Rather than recycle vampires and werewolves, she cast a banshee as her heroine. The female fairies of the hills, the keening bean-sídhe, sing at the death of those of their clan. Terrie’s immortal, living in New York City, realizes the object of her lament was murdered. She sets about to solve—and avenge—the murder. ~ Criminal Brief: The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project 13. "Tadesville" by Jack Frederickson Henry and some of his friends bum around the upper Midwest after serving in the Korean War, playing in a jug band and earning or stealing just enough to get them to the next small town. After arriving in Tadesville, Henry splits from the rest of the group, sees a mysterious woman in the woods who gives him a ring before disappearing, and leaves the town only to spend the next 10 years stealing, drinking, and in prison. Henry decides to return to Tadesville and is fairly surprised by what he finds there. Honestly, 14. "Limbo" by Steve Brewer A man with connections to several mafia organizations wakes up in the morgue and is given a second chance in order to find out who killed him. — A man who works as muscle-for-hire for a number of competing crime syndicates wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy and tries to solve the mystery of his murder. 15. "The Insider" by Mike Wiecek A man is called in to investigate when a financial analyst (I think) has a ridiculous investing hot streak that is due to a ghost with perfect market tips. — The ghost of a murdered man is giving excellent stock market tips to former business associates, who are understandably torn between desire to cash in and fear that some really sinister forces must be at work, so they hire a paranormal PI to investigate the phenomenon. 16. "Swing Shift" by Dana Cameron An FBI agent asks Jake for help with a problem. Jake and his family help the agent, and he discovers that this family has some special powers. — Someone's infiltrated a group of code-breakers in New York in what appears to be a locked-room mystery, so it's up to a werewolf detective and his femme fatale vampire cousins to sort things out. Also featured: drug deals, jazz clubs, corrupt FBI agents. 17. "Riding High" by Carolyn Hart A spirit comes down to help one person, but before she leaves ends up trying to help another one who is being secretly abused. — A ghost whose 'job' consists of returning to earth to help solve crimes has a few hours to kill and decides to attend a country club social, where she stumbles upon an apparent case of spousal abuse where something's even more iffy than that sounds. 18. "Grave Matter" - A Mike Hammer Story" by Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer (a beyond hard-boiled noir detective character created in 1947 by Mickey Spillane) goes to investigate the death of a friend of his, and finds a strange town with an extremely unhelpful police chief and a beautiful, intriguing woman named Victoria. — 19. "Death of a Vampire" by Parnell Hall An investigator named Stanley is hired by a girl to find out if her boyfriend is actually a vampire, like he claims to be. — An annoying goth girl hires a PI to find out if her vampire boyfriend is really what he says he is. — Things are complicated by her overprotective dad, who isn't keen on her having a boyfriend of any variety. The PI doubles as narrator and nicely turns a lot of investigator clichés on their heads in his little asides - he's a somewhat curmudgeonly old gent in late middle age who prefers more sedate cases, is happily married to a cheery and contented wife, and has no interest in sleeping with his immature client, who obviously regards herself as something of a femme fatale. 20. "Taking the Long View" by Toni L. P. Kelner At a party surrounded by old vampires who have little but contempt for him, Mark (a young vampire) finds himself at a vampire trial, defending a human concubine from the charge of murdering her owner. — A vampire courtroom drama that manages to make the most of the premise without running into trouble by taking itself too seriously. At an official meeting of important members of the supernatural community, one vampire is found murdered after having the curtains of his bedroom opened during the day and coming into fatal contact with sunlight. His human familiar is the only suspect, and the main character (who I believe is the protagonist of a number of other stories and novels by the author) takes it upon herself to defend the young woman, despite her personal dislike of her, since she knows she won't receive a fair trial as an 'inferior' creature accused of murdering her 'owner'. Cover Blurb A winning mystery collection edited by and featuring an original story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. Nighttime is the perfect time for the perfect crime-especially in the realm of the paranormal. #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an original story-set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe-to this anthology of mysteries from the dark side. Other featured Mystery Writers of America include Carolyn Hart, Barbara D'Amato, Margart Maron, Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane, and Elaine Viets. ~ Category:Anthologies